Andrew Thomas usually exudes a calm, quiet demeanor, providing the Giants a stable cornerstone as their star left tackle.
His neighbors might beg to differ, however.
Thomas, whom the Giants drafted with the No. 4 overall pick in 2020 out of Georgia, watched his alma mater lose to Alabama in the SEC championship game on Saturday.
“I got pretty hype,” Thomas said Monday with a laugh on a Zoom call. “No destruction [of furniture] but a lot of yelling. My neighbors were probably wondering what was going on.”
Georgia’s loss knocked them down from being ranked No. 1 in the country all the way to No. 6 and out of the highly disputed College Football Playoff.
Alabama, previously ranked No. 7, jumped up to No. 4 and into the playoff with the win.
The back-to-back defending national champions, it marked Georgia’s first loss in 29 games.
Thomas believes the committee got it wrong.
“I felt like [Georgia’s] one of the best four teams, if that’s what the criteria is,” Thomas said. “But I don’t make that decision.”
That criteria was used to knock Florida State, who finished the regular season a perfect 13-0 and was ranked No. 4 entering championship weekend, out of the playoff.
The Seminoles finished the season without star quarterback Jordan Travis, who broke his leg.
But the committee seemingly did not believe they were one of the top four teams in the country, knocking them down to No. 5 despite winning the ACC championship over Louisville.
Cornerback Adoree’ Jackson went to USC and has no horse in the race, but he’s as big of a college football fan as there is on the roster.
“I’m not going to lie, I think they should have put Florida State in there,” Jackson said. “Obviously, going undefeated, which is just crazy, and to see they were just ranked No. 4 in that last game they played, right? And then they bump them out. I know I heard a bunch about the quarterback being out. That doesn’t mean anything. I feel like they earned the right to be able to go play.”
Syracuse is targeting Giants running backs coach Jeff Nixon to be the team’s next offensive coordinator under new head coach Fran Brown, according to ESPN. He has previous play-calling experience at Baylor.
The Packers, whom the Giants face Monday night, are playing their best football of the season with three straight wins, as is quarterback Jordan Love.
But Jackson did not watch their impressive prime-time win over the Chiefs on Sunday night.
“They play good football, though,” Jackson said. “I’d say very sound. They stick to them. Knowing [Packers head coach] Matt LeFleur, being in Tennessee with him, he sticks to what he knows and what he does well, and that’s being able to distribute the ball around, have his receivers, whatever they like to use them as, and let them use them at a high level.”
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